ABOUT Viana de Lima
Viana de Lima enrolled in the Architecture course at the School of Fine Arts of Porto, In 1929. In 1936, Viana de Lima began working at the Directorate-General for National Buildings and Monuments. He completed his degree at the School of Fine Arts of Porto (ESBAP) with a final grade of 19 out of 20 (1929/41). He was a founding member of the Organization of Modern Architects (ODAM) from 1947 to 1952. In 1947, he was invited to be a correspondent for the French magazine “Technique et Architecture,” where some of his works were published. He participated in the 1st National Congress of Architecture (SNA) in 1948. During the fifties, he led the Portuguese group at CIAM (1950/59), participating in events in England (1951), Aix-en-Provence, France (1953), Dubrovnik, Yugoslavia (1956), and Otterlo, Netherlands (1959).
PUBLICATION DATE
APRIL
LB 20 VIANA DE LIMA casa das marinhas
LB 20 VIANA DE LIMA CASA DAS MARINHAS is the twenty-fifth title from the LONG BOOKS collection.
The Casa das Marinhas (1954-57) corresponds to what Viana de Lima would designate as “the manor of modern times.”
What does this house communicate to us, what does its iconicity evoke? Is it the image of the traditional mill that portrays the construction, or is it the legacy of the retreat dwelling? Or is it the contemporary fusion of this heritage in the current museum house?
Architect Viana de Lima’s family refuge project, VL, currently operates at the intersection of these three distinct images that ascend to the observer’s imagination. The primary structure of the mill, the reflection of an intimate character resulting from the architect’s action, and the contemporary reflection, a consequence of the unfolding of a chronicle that turned the house into a public facility. At the turn of the century, this new perspective reconfigures the architect’s sense, subordinating today the unified achievements.
Under its brilliance, the private house is transformed into a museum. It is not possible to contain the property in the sphere of the private phenomenon because it possesses exclusive energy that is also not indifferent to the common citizen. From this perspective, the house transitions into the public domain as a sign of plurality, disguised as heritage by imposition to save it from collapse and ashes. The new heritage guise brings together a set of indivisible principles that cannot be isolated because they belong to a unified whole. The good cannot be separated from the values it carries. The scale of affectation of these values is variable, and they merge, generating such good, heritage. By force of law, classification condenses the collective of public factors, since individual judgment does not generate consensus, which could weaken the good.
